This sisterhood were from the isle of Erin, and not an unfavorable
specimen of that important portion of our domestic life. They were
quick-witted, well-versed in a certain degree of household and
domestic skill, guided in well-doing more by impulsive good feeling
than by any very enlightened principle. The dominant idea with
them all appeared to be, that they were living in the house of a
millionnaire, where money flowed through the establishment in a golden
stream, out of which all might drink freely and rejoicingly, with no
questions asked. Mrs. Lillie concerned herself only with results, and
paid no attention to ways and means. She wanted a dainty and generous
table to be spread for her, at all proper hours, with every pleasing
and agreeable variety; to which she should come as she would to the
table of a boarding-house, without troubling her head where any thing
came from or went to. Bridget, having been for some years under the
training and surveillance of Grace Seymour, was more than usually
competent as cook and provider; but Bridget had abundance of the Irish
astuteness, which led her to feel the genius of circumstances, and to
shape her course accordingly.

With Grace, she had been accurate, saving, and economical; for Miss
Grace was so. Bridget had felt, under her sway, the beauty of that
economy which saves because saving is in itself so fitting and so
respectable; and because, in this way, a power for a wise generosity
is accumulated. She was sympathetic with the ruling spirit of the
establishment.

But, under the new mistress, Bridget declined in virtue. The
announcement that the mistress of a family isn't going to give herself
any trouble, nor bother her head with care about any thing, is one the
influence of which is felt downward in every department. Why should
Bridget give herself any trouble to save and economize for a mistress
who took none for herself? She had worked hard all her life, why not
take it easy? And it was so much easier to send daily a basket of cold
victuals to her cousin on Vine Street than to contrive ways of making
the most of things, that Bridget felt perfectly justified in doing it.
If, once in a while, a little tea and a paper of sugar found their way
into the same basket, who would ever miss it?

The seamstress was an elegant lady. She kept all Lillie's dresses and
laces and wardrobe, and had something ready for her to put on when
she changed her toilet every day. If this ve